Hello and welcome back. It is time for the morning mindset. I hope you are well today. I hope that you find yourself motivated and eager to get into God's word to get your mind aligned with his truth

so that you can live this day in a way that brings honor day and directs your

steps in the right paths and he would have you long.

We are continuing today in Psalm, chapter 18.

And yesterday I brought up a passage that characterizes God as a torturer and I realize that could be very difficult

for some to swallow. But what I said at the end of yesterday's episode is that when a person's heart is already inclined

away from God they have demonstrated both to themselves to the world around them and

to God that they are not willing to listen.

And so God, like a parent, like a good parent, brings a more stern consequence into their life to get their attention.

You know when you were a kid and you weren't listening to your parents, the voice would escalate.

The punishment might get more severe

because they were trying to get your attention

for your good to point you in the right direction

instead of the wrong direction you were headed in.

Well, that is what this passage in Psalm 18 is communicating to us in verses 25 through 26.

Now I'm going to read those verses again and then I'm going to go on into the next

verses because it makes it much clearer as to how we can avoid being that one

to whom God's ways would seem tortuous.

V.

V says, with the merciful you show yourself merciful, with the blameless man you

show yourself blameless.

With the purified you show yourself pure and with the crooked you make yourself seem

...